Workout companies "definitely play a useful role in the services they provide and also by being a third party," said Ben Thypin, senior market analyst at research firm Real Capital Analytics, who was not specifically familiar with Breakwater. "Banks have to demonstrate to shareholders and regulators that they're getting market value (for soured real estate investments). Having a third party involved lends credibility to whatever amounts they're able to recover.""During boom times, commercial real estate owners and developers took out financing without realizing what they were getting into and what their rights or recourses were if things went bad," Thypin said. "A commercial finance is very complex; there are often multiple loans, multiple stakeholders. To have someone who knows the market well and works on behalf of the owner puts them in a better position to negotiate a settlement that benefits them as much as possible."

Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.